


Scattered

by followmetoyourdoom



Series: What Makes A Family [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Corruption, tw: panic attack, uh idk what else to tag for now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 02:40:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8731591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/followmetoyourdoom/pseuds/followmetoyourdoom
Summary: Takes place post season 1, (written before season 2). A look into each paladin's individual battles as they fight to get back together.





	

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses on Shiro as he struggles with his injury and mind - thrown to the farthest reaches of the universe, how will he ever return?

Shouts and screams and beeping and wailing; red lights flashing and inky purple tendrils seeping into the shimmering blue. That was all Shiro could hear and see as he tumbled through the portal, swept up like all the others.

There was a flash of white light, and then a sudden calmness.

The silence was eerie, the peace unwanted. Shiro maneuvered the lion around, searching for any sight of life or a planet or a star or… something, anything!

But he was only met with darkness. 

With nothingness.

"Allura? Pidge, Keith? Lance, Hunk, Coran… anyone?!?" he called out. "Can you read me? Can anyone hear me?"

Silence.

Eyes darted around once more. Fruitless. Pointless.

"Can you get me a location?" he asked his lion, bringing up the communications bay. But there was nothing to pick up. No signals from satellites or any of the other lions, no objects of any sort that could be detected via radar. There was nothing for light years around.

They must be in the furthest reaches of the galaxy, even the Galra hadn't made it this far.

Shiro went to stand but a jolt of pain shot through him and he collapsed back into his chair. Cautiously he sat up and glanced at the offending wound. Except… It didn't look like a wound at all. 

At least not a human wound.

_...part of the Galra Empire… broken and reformed… the strongest part of you… monster like you… monster like you… MONSTER LIKE Y- _

"STOP IT!" Shiro hunched over the controls of the black lion. Broken, torn, and a long way from home; a long way from anything.

Hiccups and sobs broke gently through the air and the black lion hummed with sympathy, feeling its paladin's torment. But there was nothing it could do. Not while Shiro was so emotionally unstable, not while any connection to the black lion was overshadowed by twelve months of imprisonment and experimentation and torture.

Not while Shiro was in pain.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain dulled - it didn't fade - just dulled. And right now, that was all Shiro asked for.

Breathing returned to normal, heart rate slowed to a steady pace; vision cleared and tears dried.

Shiro blinked.

Okay.  _ Focus _ .

He had to pick a direction, he couldn't just stay here, right? But then again, pick the wrong direction and well… Shiro had to make the right choice, he had to. Though what was the chance of heading in the right direction? One in a million? If he was lucky.

The other option would be to stay here, and that wasn't an option at all. He'd go insane.

Time to pick a direction then.

"You got any ideas, buddy?" Shiro asked his lion, trusting its instinct more than his own.

The response was a flurry of images as the lion searched once more, pushing itself to its limits. There was mainly nothing except darkness but eventually, eventually... A star. One single star that existed far beyond what the naked eye could see. It would take weeks, possibly months to get there - even in his lion.

Unless…

Shiro thought for a moment, "Could… could you create a wormhole, even if it can't get us all the way there. Anything to lessen the distance."

This time, there way no reply.

"Guess that's a no, huh?" He sighed and activated the controls, "Let's get going then. No point in waiting."

The lion whirred as Shiro steered it in the right direction, guided by their shared connection and Shiro's will to return home - not to any particular place or planet, but to the people he knew and loved. 

To the rest of the paladins and the surviving alteans. To his team, his family. Because that was what they had become. 

Family. 

And so long as Shiro could find them, he could get home.

No matter how long it took.

Days passed without change. The black lion and its paladin flew monotonously through space hardly able to tell that they were moving at all.

Shiro was thankful that Coran had insisted on loading his and the other lions with spare food. Even if it was disgusting. As for other needs... Well, let's just say that he'd left some matter behind in space where there had previously been none, but he could live with that and the awful food. 

It was the loneliness that got to him.

That and the constant nightmares, and pain from his cut. He was used to the nightmares, he'd been having them for months now, but the pain… It seared and throbbed uncomfortably, and sharp pins and needles surged through his abdomen, almost as if the wound itself was alive.

Alive and growing. 

This of course meant Shiro was constantly checking it, having nothing better to do.

Had it… had it spread? No, that was silly. It can't have. He must be seeing things again, yes, that was it. His delirious mind was making him believe the druid had  _ infected _ him with Galra essence or something. 

Shiro clenched his right hand nervously. 

_ Wouldn't be the first time. _

In all honesty, Shiro didn't even know what its full capabilities were. He wasn't sure he wanted to, not unless there was a way to control or block those that could put his friends - and indeed the entire mission - in danger.

Though of course, he had to get back first.

According to his lion, the star would soon become visible - it would be a pin prick of light in the never ending darkness - but it would at least be visible. The lion of course had seen it after a few days travelling, but then the black lion's eyes were much sharper that its human counterpart.

Shiro glanced down at his wound again. It had been a week and it wasn't getting better.

The sooner they got back to the ship the better.

Within the following days, the star did indeed appear and Shiro spent hours watching it grow bigger and closer, focus on the haziness that surrounded it so as not to hurt his eyes, and wondered what was beyond it.

He knew the universe was constantly expanding; that as he was flying closer to that star, it too would be moving in his general direction. This of course meant that his lion would be able to calculate its trajectory and follow it in reverse to get back to a recognisable solar system. 

Hopefully they were on this side of the centre of the universe because if not… Shiro didn't even want to imagine how long it would take to cross it.

"Hey buddy?" Shiro waited for a response before he continued, "Could you send out a signal to the ship or- oh I see, when we get closer. Okay." He sighed and slumped in his seat, wincing when it proved too much for his wound.

On day 27, they stopped near the star, the black lion positioning itself a few million miles above it.

Shiro prompted his lion, "So, where's the nearest celestial body?" 

There was a mechanical whir as the black lion began to scan the surrounding area. Tracking the movements of the star below it, the sentient robot was able to calculate its residual trail and checked along it.

The lion found a solar system nearby, and by nearby, it meant another few weeks of travel.

"Can't you get there any quicker?" Shiro snapped, then blinked. He hadn't meant to sound so… aggressive. 

"Sorry," he mumbled.

The black lion hummed understandingly, it was frustrated too.

Thankfully, the one thing it could do was send out a signal since there was chance it could actually reach someone now - who knows, maybe there was life within that solar system. Of course, it could also reach the Galra.

Shiro chose to ignore this fact.

He told himself it was because he was bored, and if he came across some Galra, it would be an excuse to fight them. 

Not only that, Shiro couldn't really afford to  _ not _ send a signal out. However much he tried to deny it, his wound was making him weaker and weaker, and turning his temper sour. If he tried to fight the Galra in his current state… It probably wouldn't go well.

It had been a month and a half now, and his wound still hadn't healed. It didn't bleed, but it had grown, there was no denying it now - half of his torso was a sickening shade of purple.

Worse than that, whenever Shiro decided to sleep, he would be woken what felt like minutes later sweating and gasping for breath. Horrific images flashing through his mind, still lingering, still growing.

What if he never got back? What if the wound's disease overtook him entirely? What if…

So many what if's.

The black lion hummed comfortingly, reassuring Shiro that he wasn't alone. It was there for him, and always would be.

"No," Shiro said in response to this. "If… if something happens to me, something bad. If I turn into- if I become some sort of… monster." He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his palms against them to try to get rid of the flashbacks. "You can't be allied with me if that happens, you have to help the others. I will be your enemy, understand?"

The black lion said nothing.

"DAMMIT!" Shiro exploded, slamming his fist against the dash. "CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TRYING TO PROTECT THEM? PROTECT YOU?" The tears were flowing now, heavy drops splashing onto the control panel and floor. "Please! Please… You have to know the difference between right and wrong, you have to. You have to..." It became more of a plead.

"I… I just want to protect the people I love."

As Shiro collapsed against the dash, the black lion prodded him gently. It had something to show him.

_ Ten thousand years ago… My pilot… was one who sought after power for his people… To protect the ones he claimed to love… He tried to convinced me… that what he was doing was right…  _

The black lion told its story as flashes of images: Zarkon, the Galra, the other lions. A war.

_ I betrayed him… refused to ally myself with the destruction he was causing… He and his people… rallied up against me and my kind… We were torn apart… and I… without a paladin to guide me… returned to my maker… _

_ I led Zarkon to Altea… I am the reason the Alteans fell… _

There was a gaping empty hole in Shiro's mind as the images faded; the black lion didn't want to say anymore.

"That wasn't your fault," Shiro mumbled, "it was Zarkon's."

The black lion seemed to sigh, exasperated, as it poured fresh images into Shiro's mind. Ones of a happy, friendly Zarkon - the leader of Voltron, and a friend to the Alteans.

_ He was once like you… If I had stayed with him… I could have stopped him… Instead I did nothing… I ran away…  _

_ I will not abandon you… not now not ever… If you become like Zarkon… I will stop you… _

"Thank you." 

However, both hoped that day would never come.

A few weeks later, Shiro's food supply finally ran out, and he was forced to land the black lion on a nearby planet, the pair having passed quite a few solar systems by now.

"Stay here buddy, roar if you see anything."

The great lion bowed its head in a nod as its paladin stumbled off into the distance, clutching his side but determined to make it home.

And that was the last time Shiro saw his lion in a long long time.


End file.
